belly flops {w/ kitchen stories}

Did you know that Jelly Belly sells its wonky shaped jelly beans at a discounted price? The same jelly beans, just misshaped or stuck together with another. Essentially, the rejects. The flops. 

Of course they still taste the same, so long as you don't mind the aesthetics you get to enjoy yummy jelly beans at a discount. And Jelly Belly still gets to make money on their "mess-ups". 

Too bad there's nothing to save my own kitchen flops. You know, those times you try a new recipe and nothing turns out right? You've seen my successes - my favorite dinners and desserts, my kitchen tips and tricks. But what I have yet to share, thus far, are those belly flops. Until now. 

 Let's set the scene. It was February 24th, my dad's birthday. Each and every year my mom asks what type of cake he'd like. And each year it is either German Chocolate or Pineapple Upside Down cake. This year he chose pineapple, and I offered to make it. The traditional recipe is very simple, especially if you use a box mix. But of course, I decided to veer away from tradition, and take a gourmet twist on the 1970s era classic. 

I searched and scoured the internet, and found the perfect recipe. It called for cardamom and fresh pineapple and a bubbly caramel, and most perfect of all, it was baked in a cast-iron skillet. And I would bake it in the skillet I received as a gift from my dad. 

I started off with fresh cut pineapple and brown sugar...

and cardamom in the batter...

I melted butter in my cast iron skillet...

and made a yummy caramel. It really was soo good!

Then I arranged the pineapple in the caramel... 

looking good if I can say so myself...

and added the batter and baked according to the recipe...

It looked and smelled so yummy! The spicy earthiness of cardamom filled the house. I let it sit for a minute or so as directed, then with the help of my husband, flipped the cake onto a cake stand. 

***

Here's how it turned out. 

Yup, basically the entire top stuck to the pan. I reread the recipe a few times,
trying to figure out what I did wrong, and nothing. 

With just a few hours before my dad's birthday dinner I ran to the store, 

grabbed canned pineapple and a yellow cake mix. 

I had such good intentions to make a divine, unique pineapple cake, but the best laid plans....

In the end the second cake was great. Traditional. 

Just like every other pineapple upside down cake, but that's ok. 

What's your biggest, or just most recent, kitchen flop?